Pixel Scroll 9/23/16 Is There In Pixel No Scrolling?

(1) WOKING UNVEILS WELLS STATUE. H. G. Wells only lived in Woking for 18 months, but the city’s theory is the time there had a big impact on his work, so they’ve put up a statue. This week saw the unveiling of unveiling of a seven-foot statue of the author, to honor his 150th birthday on September 21.

wells-holdng-sphere

Stephen Baxter, president of the British Science Fiction Association and vice president of the HG Wells Society, said: “HG Wells was in this very small town for a very brief period but in that time he produced a novel that changed forever mankind’s view of our infinite future in infinite space.”

Woking was a landing site for the Martian invasion in *War of the Worlds*; some years ago, sculpture illustrating the novel appeared around town. One can see a Martian tripod, a crashed interplanetary cylinder, and [SPOILER ALERT] a bacillus.

In a video on the *Get Surrey* site, sculptor Wesley Harland explains notable features of the work.

On the back of Wells’s chair is “802,701 AD,” the year his narrator visits in *The Time Machine*. Beneath the chair, the red weed from Mars creeps across the ground, as in *War of the Worlds*. And in his hand he holds a model of Professor Cavor’s spherical antigravity vessel, from *The First Men in the Moon*. Harland’s sculpture is made of bronze and, presumably, Cavorite.

(2) COWS IN SPACE. I discovered this on the back of a lunch-sized milk carton – the Cows in Space ttp://www.dairypure.com/cows-in-space game.

(3) THERE’S A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. Mark Leeper had a little fun deconstructing the 1959 movie based on Jules Verne’s novel Journey To The Center of the Earth.

Last week I wrote an evaluation of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), one of my favorite movies of the 1950s and what I consider one of the great adventure films of all times. I find what is wrong with the film forgivable. But I would not feel right about just ignoring the many problems I saw watching the film recently. This is effectively an appendix to that essay listing problems with the writing of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

Jules Verne’s novel leaned rather heavily on lucky coincidence. He started with a note falling out of a book where just the right person could read it. But that is a small coincidence compared to those in the 1959 adaptation. Walter Reisch’s and Charles Brackett’s screenplay seems to consider this a carte blanche and ver and over has fortuitous accidents pushing the story forward. Consider Arne Saknussemm who, knowing he would not return from his expedition, scratched his message into a plumb bob. Somehow this tool made its way back up to the surface from near the center of the earth. Along the way somehow this tool was lightly coated in lava so it look much like another rock. It managed not to fall into the sea surrounding the volcano. Then someone found the rock and sold it individually to a shop in Edinburgh where a student volcanologist found it. What do you figure are the chances of all that happening? Later an explosion blows off the lava jacket and the plumb bob is left shiny and legible once the lava is removed.

(4) THE BIG BOOK OF BIG BOOKS. John Scalzi’s latest piece for the LA Times takes off from Alan Moore’s epic Jerusalem.

Writer Alan Moore, perhaps best known for the classic “Watchmen” graphic novel, has this month released a novel, “Jerusalem,” to generally very positive reviews. There are many words to describe the novel (“epic,” “Joycean,” “vast,” and “show-offingly brilliant” are some of them) but the one word I think that every reader and critic of the work can agree is accurate with regard to the book is “long.” “Jerusalem” clocks in at over 600,000 words, a length that dwarfs such monster books as “Ulysses” (a mere 265,000 words), and exceeds  “Shogun,” “Infinite Jest,” “War and Peace” and either the Old or New Testament individually (but not together).

… When a single word encompasses such a wide range of objects, it has the effect of skewing people’s expectations. I’m a fairly standard working novelist, in that I publish about a novel a year. In one decade, from 2006 to 2016, I wrote eight novels; Alan Moore wrote one. In terms of novel-sized objects, it appears that I have ­vastly outpaced Moore, by a ratio of 8 to 1. But my novels ranged in length from about 75,000 words to about 130,000 words, with an average of about 90,000 words. So across eight novels, I’ve written — or at least, had published — about 720,000 words in novel form. Moore, on the other hand, published more than 600,000.

(5) SELF-PUBLISHED PATRONUS. A lot of Filers were mildly grumpy about the patronus that Pottermore picked for them, but unlike most, RedWombat was ready to solve the problem herself…

I got Chestnut Mare which left me with questions–like how you know it’s chestnut when it’s SILVER!–and also I’m not that fond of horses, so I took it again with a different email, got completely different questions…

And got Bay Stallion.

Filled with burning rage, I drew my own.

(6) TRILOGY TRAILER. Tor/Forge has posted a trailer for Cixin Liu’s Three Body Trilogy on YouTube. I watched it to find out why I should buy the books I’ve already bought. (Reminds me of that cabinet member in Dave justifying the budget to buy advertising that makes people feel better about the American autos they’ve already purchased.)

(7) ROCKET ARRIVAL. Nnedi Okorafor’s Hugo arrived.

So maybe this is a good time for me to thank Elayne Pelz fo dropping off my Hugos this week. And I had John King Tarpinian shoot a photo:

mike-with-hugos-crop

(8) YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE. Atlas Obscura pays a nice graphical tribute to “Places You Can No Longer Go: Ray Bradbury’s House”, which includes one frame based on John King Tarpinian’s iconic photo of the shattered garage published in news services in January 2015.

(9) LONG TIME FRIEND. Scoop hosts Maggie Thompson’s tribute: “In Memoriam: David Kyle”.

That’s some of what a formal obituary would say, but I have to add that David was one of the fan friends I’ve always known: He and Ruth were friends of my mother and father and then of Don and mine, and their kids—Kerry and AC—grew up as friends of my daughter. In fact, our families even “traded daughters” some summers, and Valerie moved to New York City to room with Kerry the year she graduated from high school.

In recent years, David has been acting grandfather to Valerie’s son—and every time I’ve seen David, he’s been the same delightful friend I’ve known for years. His body grew weaker, but his wit continued to entertain friends and fans alike.

The post also tells some of the byplay between ultimate comics fan Thompson, and Kyle, who didn’t care for comics.

(10) SF-THEMED CAT SHOW. The Cat/SF conspiracy continues. Mark-kitteh reports, “The UK’s Supreme Cat Show (yes, this is a real thing) will have a SF-themed competition for Best Decorated Pen, and the theme continues with special guests appearing including Colin Baker, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, John Leeson & Peter Purves.”

[Thanks to Bill Higgins, Mark-kitteh, John King Tarpinian, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

105 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/23/16 Is There In Pixel No Scrolling?

  1. (2) Cows? In space? mooooo (you may have to be of a certain age and geography to get that — those of you who are, it’s stuck in your head, right?)

    (3) No link to the full piece, Mike? (Side note — around here, we call the movie “The one where Pat Boone molests a sheep”, since that happens at the end, which we caught at about 5 AM after an old movie marathon. Okay, he’s only holding the sheep so as to obscure his naughty bits, but when it’s 5 AM, you’re drunk and 20-something… yeah.)

    (9) I’m not sure I ever knew what the A. stood for. Holy cow, it’s either a coincidence or a sign of First Fandom.

    (10) I am fascinated and horrified. Is there a word for that?

    ETA: Vth!

  2. Finishing up The Left Hand of Darkness next week; teaching Kindred for two weeks next and then 1.5 weeks on Neuromancer and 1.5 weeks on Watchmen. Those last three are all additions to my syllabus, so I welcome any suggestions on topics to cover (don’t be afraid to mention the obvious ones!) Students this semester are mostly grad students, but I have two undergrads who have very limited exposure to SFF. Fortunately, they have been dropping in regularly to our live online discussion, which I record and post as “File 404” in honor of y’all.

  3. There’s compare and contrast today’s intarweb with the one in “Neuromancer”, of course. Back when computers were all monochrome text, various geeks of my acquaintance thought the description of being in cyberspace (i.e. coding) fit pretty well — and now that we have all the pretty colors, not at all. Considering it was written on a typewriter, perhaps that’s why; all keyboardy and linear.

    Watchmen is going to freak the non-SFFers out, heh, and any more delicate types. I don’t know as any of them will really “get it” as viscerally, not having lived through Vietnam and the Cold War. Yes, there’s sudden terrorism and random wars in places you never heard of, but not quite so much “everything might end in an instant”. The concept of crooked politicians is mother’s milk to them, so the impact of Nixon being president for life also isn’t going to be as strong. But, they’ve seen Marvel movies, so they’ll get the contrast, and at least learn where grim ‘n gritty Superman came from — and at their age, Batman’s always been grimdark.

    Kindred, I think I’ll let our African-descended Filers suggest.

  4. @lurkertype

    Yes, it’s a jolt to realize that cyberpunk is over 30 years old now, so the more recent incarnations in lit, anime, etc., have evolved. Gibson didn’t do so badly in light of what you said about the actual state of tech back then, though.

    Sidenote on politicians and Watchmen: someone reported today that Cruz has expressed solidarity with Rorschach. So is bowing to Trump giving in to Ozy or (more likely) allying with the Comedian?

  5. @Hal’s Buddy: Well, both Cruz and Rorschach creep me the hell out, so there ya go. I think Trump is for sure the Comedian — while Ozy has all the egoboo buildings and businesses, he did start out wanting to sorta do good, plus he’s very fond of science.

    Do remind the kids that anything they think is cliche in Neuromancer is just b/c it invented the mode/milieu they’re so used to. There wouldn’t be no Ghost in the Shell without it.

  6. (3) There’s a scroll in the bottom of the sea
    There’s a scroll in the bottom of the sea
    There’s a scroll, there’s a scroll
    There’s a scroll in the bottom of the sea

    There’s a cat (10) in the scroll in the bottom of the sea
    There’s a cat in the scroll in the bottom of the sea
    There’s a cat, there’s a cat
    There’s a cat in the scroll in the bottom of the sea

    There’s a cow (2) with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.
    There’s a cow with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.
    There’s a cow, there’s a cow
    There’s a cow with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.

  7. @Hal — Have the kids watch an Adam West Batman, a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman (first season), and Chris Reeve’s first Superman movie (maybe skip Smallville and Brando; or just watch Superman’s first night to save time) and remind them that this is how everyone thought of superheroes at the time Watchmen came out. Then remind ’em again partway through (like right before or after something notable happens, esp. since they won’t have all done the viewing) and tell them to imagine the cognitive dissonance.

    The dead pirate stuff is both too obvious and not related enough — I’d let my class skip it if they wanted (it’s not on the test!), so meh.

  8. @Kip W: to flashback 15 years:

    Wake me up when tickbox returns

    @Iphinome: G’wan. Do more verses. You know you want to.

  9. @Hal’s Buddy: some years after Neuromancer came out, a software engineer said it gave him a warm fuzzy feeling; he didn’t care about the horrible things happening to people because the machines talked to each other. Computers nowadays are more connected than they were, but not that connected — but there’s a lot more publicly-available material (you might want to pull in “A Logic Named Joe” — or “I Remember Babylon” if you’re noticing the amount of that material that is porn).

  10. (6) That’s a good trailer, but I disliked The Dark Forest so much I’m not going to go near the next book.

    In the middle of Chuck Wendig’s Invasive right now. This book is…frantic. To put it mildly.

  11. @Iphinome:

    I love it! Thank you for the smile.

    @Kip W:

    Belated standing ovation for “Pixels are a Scroll’s Best Friend” in the prior thread.

    “Pixel, Pixel, Do You Scroll?”

    TBR is trying to overwhelm, but I am sticking fingers in my ears and singing “la la la la la” and enjoying the hell out of Authority. (The inter-library loans are snarling boogeymen because they Cannot Be Renewed. Booga booga booga!)

    *sad ticky attempt*

  12. @lurkertype: I think you’re overvaluing Trump. IIRC the Comedian had at least served in the military, so he had \something/ to back up his competence porn. The difference between Trump and the Comedian is like that between Heinlein and Haldeman.

  13. @lurkertype

    There’s a Wells (1) with cow with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.
    There’s a Wells with cow with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.
    There’s a Wells, there’s a wells.
    There’s a Wells with cow with the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.

    There’s some mulch (5) near the Wells with cow and the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea
    There’s some mulch near the Wells with cow and the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea
    There’s some mulch, there’s some mulch
    There’s some mulch near the Wells with cow and the cat in the scroll at the bottom of the sea.

  14. @lurkertype

    (2) Cows? In space? mooooo (you may have to be of a certain age and geography to get that — those of you who are, it’s stuck in your head, right?)

    We few, we proud, we Berkeley Farmers.

  15. @lurkertype

    Good point re Gibson–it’s like thinking Shakespeare is all clichés ’cause we’ve heard them before!

  16. I’m putting this here while ticky isn’t working and technically, the patronus kefuffle is mentioned in this scroll, too, plus I absolutely got the worst one. Aardvark. I am not kidding. It gave me an aardvark.

  17. @lurkertype
    Good idea on the “old school supes” like Adam W. Batman; most of them grew up in the Dark Knight universe and so the deconstruction of the old archetypes is lost on those who haven’t seen the old stuff–it’s like people who didn’t read ASoIaF back in the 90s and hence grew up in a world where gritty fantasy was the norm.
    @Chip Hitchcock
    So Trump is just a guy who fantasizes about being the Comedian? Now I want to see Trump cosplaying him!

  18. @Chip Hitchcock
    Thanks also for the suggestions of some of the other early AI stories and attitudes to bounce off of Gibson. I already plan to do a bit of reception theory and point out those who found his early work “unreadable” where today many of his ideas are just assumed in the genre/subgenre.

  19. Legacy tick. I feel like I want to say something about that Cat Picture but I just don’t know where to start… (the website is recommended though).

    (Edit: No confirm mail, no subscription. When will this nightmare end??)

  20. A while back, when we discussed DonorsChoose.org here on File770, I decided to sponsor a project to provide a class set of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 in graphic novel form to sixth-graders in a rural school in North Carolina. I guess I chose this project because I remember the first time I read the book as a child, and the powerful effect it had on me to read about other people to whom books were as important as they were to me.

    In July, the National Education Association dropped Fahrenheit 451 from their The Big Read program — which means that a lot fewer young people will get the opportunity to read it going forward. That makes me a bit sad.

    The project I chose will expire in 11 days (October 4th) if it is not fully-funded by then. They still need $220 to achieve the project. So I thought I would provide a bit of signal boost for any of you who might be willing to consider helping the project get over the line.

    https://www.donorschoose.org/project/sixth-graders-read-and-write-science-fic/2023682

  21. @Red Wombat:

    Oof. Just finished chapter 2 of Summer in Orcus and Summer’s dynamic with her mother makes my stomach feel all oogly. Looking forward to where this goes.

  22. I just got back from Maui (different island than Hawaiicon, alas, but they’re having their own comic con in November) and while I was there I paid a visit to the second most popular attraction on Lana’i — the cat sanctuary. Maybe SJW credential tourism is finally a thing!

  23. Arifel: I’ve nudged them a little closer – fingers crossed this hits its goal.

    Thank you for that!

    If they don’t make the goal, those who donated will be contacted to ask how they want their donations handled, and will be given a couple of options.

  24. @Lise Andreasen: very nice! I really like “upsetting all your gravity and quantums and stuffs”.

    @RedWombat: I can’t wait till Summer gets to travel in the chicken leg house!

    @Bigelow T: oh dear. Aardvark is not good.

  25. Lise Andreasen: Re: Cats + SF

    Thanks for posting that link. Though I despise Pinterest’s insistence that a viewer create a login and sign in to view anything, with which I absolutely refuse to comply.

    This is cute, though.

  26. @Dawn – Never sure if I should apologize for that sort of thing or not!

    My own mother is not nearly so bad as Summer’s (and is enjoying the serial!) but she had patches dark enough that I came by Summer’s mom honestly, as it were. It’s…interesting…to use a fairly neutral term…how many people have hit the second chapter and gone “Ow, little too close to home.”

    If it helps, there will be a lot of swashing and/or buckling fantasy before we hit emotionally heavy bits again.

  27. Today’s read — An Accident of Stars, by Foz Meadows

    Portal Fantasy; a teenager goes to another world, and finds herself in the middle of a brewing coup attempt.

    This book was … OK, I guess? It started out well enough, but I found myself growing less and less interested the longer I went on. All the characters’ reactions seemed off somehow, not quite believable. A huge major subplot seemed unnecessary and not all that interesting. Several times, important elements of the story seemed to come out of nowhere, and then vanish. On a less important note, the book was full of small typos.

    One plot element makes it a candidate for the Lesbian Romance SFF list in the Minor Romantic Elements category, but I’m not sure I either like it enough to put it on, or that the barely-there nature of that subplot merits a mention.

    I’ve pretty much said only negative things about it, which may give the impression that the book was terrible, and it wasn’t. There were interesting elements and a lot of potential in it. But I have to follow that by saying they never gelled together into characters I found believable or a story I found worth the time.

  28. Don’t know about that H. G. Wells statue — should the Invisible Man really have been such a prominent part of the design?

  29. Cows in space: Okay, they are in a vacuum, but are they spherical?

    Okorafor’s Hugo: I haven’t read the story yet–do cowries play some role, or is that an oddly random piece of photo dressing?

    In other news, I see that an impressive new “venus” figurine has been found.

    ETA:

    I am fascinated and horrified. Is there a word for that?

    “Fasorrified.” There is now.

    (Actually, I think that is more or less the original meaning of “awful.”)

  30. DAY FIVE OF THE FILE770 GODSTALK TICKY CRISIS

    Desperate Filers are resorting to dozens of open browser tabs, favorite bookmarks, and sticky Post-It notes.

  31. The Alan Moore book is also heavy. Though it is not what I am going to read next, I know I’ll need to deal with the weight of it. When my arthritis surged a bit, large heavy books were ten pages at a time. Maybe I can get a few more than ten pages a day now.

    Felix Godstalk had a tic
    Twitched this way and twitched that
    spilled his pixel and his scrolls
    got a beat and is on a roll

  32. Just seen on the fictionmags Yahoo group:

    Robert “Bob” Weinberg, who turned 70 at the end of August, is in the Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital, “fighting infection,” his wife Phyllis wrote on the First Fandom e-list.

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